關於Feign的意思和用法的提問

A: to fake, pretend, act

A: To pretend to be nervous

A: To fake.

If someone were very smart but acted as if they weren't, you would say that "They feigned ignorance."

A: It means to fake. For example, if you feign an injury, you are faking it.

A: It means to pretend/fake to understand or know about something that you actually do not understand or know about. It is pretending to be informed on a certain topic.

A: It is almost never used in daily talk. It is usually only used in literature.

Example: "I feigned sickness to skip school"

A: The little boy showed a feign expression to his mother, like he was sick, because he wanted to skip school.

A: She understands Spanish. But if you speak Spanish to her, she will feign ignorance.
That mother saw the window that her son broke. I asked her about it, but she feigned ignorance.

A: "she feigned nervousness"

A: They both mean the same thing, but it should be "he feigned deafness", not "he feigned he was deaf".

:)

A: Feign means to pretend to be affected by. For example ‘When accused of stealing a coworker’s lunch, he feigned ignorance.’ He attempted to make people think he had nothing to do with the theft.

Pretend means to speak or act as if something is true when it is in fact not. Such as ‘The child pretended he was a samurai.’ Of course, the child’s intent wasn’t to actually deceive someone, they just wanted to be pretend to be a samurai.

Hope this helped.

A: To be honest they're mostly interchangeable in meaning, however "feign" is less commonly used in casual conversation. Feel free to use feign yourself, I'm just saying that you're less likely to hear other speakers use it in spoken conversation and are more likely to read it in a novel or the news for example.

Here is an example for the word "feign" from an article from IGN:
"the company hopes to shut down bad actors who feign ignorance of unclear guidelines."
This sentence would be different if you used the word pretend however, as you would write "the company hopes to shut down bad actors who pretend to have ignorance of unclear guidelines."

Here is an example for the word "feign" from an article on Fox News:
"Larson had the girl don a long-haired wig to make her look older and to feign having a disability that rendered her unable to speak." This sentence would be different if you used the word pretend however, as you would write "Larson had the girl don a long-haired wig to make her look older and to pretend that she had a disability that rendered her unable to speak."

Here is an example for the word "feign" from an article on The Washington Post:
"(Republicans) have found only two appointments to even feign concern about." This sentence would be different if you had written it using the word pretend however, as you would instead write "(Republicans) have found only two appointments to even pretend to have concern about."

Here is an example for the word "feign" from an academic book, "Assessment of Feigned Cognitive Impairment":
"Individuals may choose to feign or to exaggerate intellectual deficits for many reasons." I think you get it now, but to write this sentence using the word pretend you would write "Individuals may choose to pretend that they have or to exaggerate intellectual deficits for many reasons."

So basically, grammar is the difference.

ALSO while for every sentence you could write using the word feign you could write using the word pretend instead, you can't write every sentence using the word pretend with the word feign.

For example "I used to pretend when I was young" makes sense. But "I used to feign when I was young"... technically is grammatically correct but is very awkward and unnatural sounding.

"The children are pouring out pretend tea" makes sense but "The children are pouring out feign tea" doesn't make sense. This is because in this instance pretend is being used as an adjective while feign is only a verb.

"You are a pretend princess" Same thing. Pretend can be an adjective, feign can't.

So yeah main differences: Feign sounds more literary/formal and can sound more unnatural and grammar differences.

A: He feigned illness. He pretended to be ill.

A: Hmm… I’ll try to put this in words but English is complicated…

1 - pretending death is a bit extreme compared to pretending ignorance, illness etc… pretending/feigning is an alternate state of being - and if you are dead you are no longer being, you are a thing (dead body) so “fake” sounds better (for things)

2 - feigning/pretending = acting - which needs an audience… you can pretend to be dead by lying still and breathing shallowly (feigning death) but pretending to be REALLY dead is hard if someone is there (without using major specific drugs and medical care - something that sounds like it’s in a drama) - if someone isn’t there to witness your pretending there is no feigning

3 - “her own death” added to the statement seems to imply an event - hence the implied audience

So…

She plans on faking her own death near a popular trail in the mountains, changing her name, and leaving the country. (No one sees it)

We thought she was was dead but she was just feigning death. (Someone sees it - acting the part of __ which in this case is death… it’s not a real event of death)

—

Take into account I’m from the US so other English countries may not think it sounds odd for the circumstance, and that to my ears it sounds dramatic/poetic like it should be on a stage or from something more than 100 years ago.

If someone said it though… I don’t know that it would make me pause if they tended to speak in higher/academic/poetic sentences on a regular basis (as an academic I can imagine a few of my colleagues saying it but we’re theatre folk so being around that speech on a regular basis alters your own sometimes) and I’d know what they were saying… it’s just that “faked” is much more common and if I were to choose between the two to write the sentences, I would write:
She feigned death.
She faked her own death.

A: He feigned illness
(you can place any abstract noun after "feign")

A: "He pretended that he was sick" is the more common sentence.